1599 Geneva Bible: "Mad Harebrains?"

Act 8:9-10 “(i)And there was before in the city, a certain man called Simon, which used (ii)witchcraft, and (iii)bewitched the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was some great man, To whom they gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is that great power of God.”

i. Christ overcomes Satan often as he goes, and then carries him about in triumph in the sight of them, who Satan previously deceived and afflicted.
ii. This word used here was first taken in good meaning, and is borrowed from the Persians' language, who call their wise men by this word, but has sense come to mean evil.
iii. He had so tricked the Samaritans with his witchcrafts, that as blind and mad harebrains* they were wholly addicted to him.

* this (iii) section is not a paraphrase but the word for word reading of the Geneva notes. I love the word harebrained!



[The above quoted scripture and accompanying Troy-paraphrased notes are taken from the 1599 Geneva Bible. A version of this great Bible, with modern spelling, may be purchased from the following link]

1599 Geneva Bible: "Mock on"

Job 19:25-26 “for I am sure that my (i)Redeemer liveth, and he shall stand the last on the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet shall I see God (ii) in my flesh.”

i. I do not justify myself before the world, but I know that I shall come before the great Judge, who shall be my deliverer and Savior.
ii. Here Job declares plainly that he had a full hope, that both the body and the soul should enjoy the presence of God in the last resurrection.

Job 20:12-14 “When wickedness was (iii)sweet in his mouth, and he hid it under his tongue, and and favored it, and would not forsake it, but kept it close in his mouth, then his meat in his bowels was turned: the gall of Asps was in the midst of him.”

iii. It is like poison that is sweet in the mouth, but it brings destruction when it enters into the body: so to is all vice that is first pleasant, but afterward God turns it to destruction.

[At this point all of Job's accusers have in turn charged him with wrong and he has refuted them at every point and yet they persist, so here he begins another defense of which he knows they will not listen to . . . ]
Job 21:3 “Suffer me that I may speak, and when I have spoken, mock on.”


[The above quoted scripture and accompanying Troy-paraphrased notes are taken from the 1599 Geneva Bible. A version of this great Bible, with modern spelling, may be purchased from the following link]

1599 Geneva Bible: "Bridling Pride"

1 Corinthians 4:7 “(i) For who seperateth thee? And what hast thou, that thou hast not received? If thou hast received it, why rejoicest thou, as though (ii) thou hadst no received it?”

i.He shows a good means to bridle pride: first, if you consider how to rightly view yourself as a distinct person out of the number of others, seeing that you are a man yourself: again, if you consider that although you do have something more than other men have, yet you only have it because of God's bountifulness and goodness to you. And does a wise man boast of another man's goodness like it was his own, and even more so, does he brag of it over against God?
ii.There is nothing than in us of nature, that is worthy of reward: but all that we have, we have it by the grace of God, which the Pelagians* and half-Pelagians* will not confess.

*Pelagians were men who followed the teachings of Pelagius, a 1st century Theologian, which (in brief) taught this: that man is perfectly able to save himself with out any help or work of God. God is needed. Half-Pelagians on the other hand say that God's grace is necessary to save men but it can not do it alone with out the man doing something too. In this system, neither God nor man can save men alone but both must co-operate with each other.


[The above quoted scripture and accompanying Troy-paraphrased notes are taken from the 1599 Geneva Bible. A version of this great Bible, with modern spelling, may be purchased from the following link]

1599 Geneva Bible: "A Warning to Leaders"

1 Corinthians 3:10 “According to the grace of God given to me, as a skillful master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon: (i) but let every man take heed how he buildeth upon it.”

i. Now Paul speaks to the teachers, who have succeeded him in the Church of Corinth, and to all that were after him as well as all that shall be Pastors of Congregations, seeing that they succeed in the work of the Apostles, which were the planters and chief builders. Therefore he warns them (and us) first, that they do not fool themselves into thinking that they can build the Church up in any way that pleases them, that is to say, they may not set forth anything in the Church, in substance or in kind of teaching, that is in any way different from the Apostles, which were the Church's first builders.



[The above quoted scripture and accompanying Troy-paraphrased notes are taken from the 1599 Geneva Bible. A version of this great Bible, with modern spelling, may be purchased from the following link]

1599 Geneva Bible: "Why so few take heed?"

[The below quoted scripture and accompanying Troy-aphrased notes are taken from the 1599 Geneva Bible. A version of this great Bible, with modern spelling, may be purchased from the following link]

1 Corinthians 2:14 “(i)But the (ii)natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are (iii)spiritually discerned”

i. Again Paul answers a possible objection by the reader: "How is it that so few men take heed of these things?" This is not to be marveled at says the Apostle, seeing as how men in their natural state are not endued with that sense, whereby spiritual things are understood (for that sense comes another way other than by birth) and therefore such men account spiritual wisdom as foolishness: and it is like if Paul were to say, "It should not surprise you that blind men can make no sense of colors, since they lack the light of their eyes, and therefore all light is to them as darkness."
ii. The natural man hath no more light of understanding than that which he brought with him from his mother's womb, as described in Jude 19.
iii. By gift of the Holy Ghost.

-For reference:
Jude 19 "*These are they that separate themselves from others, natural, having not the Spirit."

* It is the nature of Antichrists to separate themselves from the godly, because they are not governed by the spirit of God: vice versa it is the nature of Christians to build up one another through godly prayers both in faith and also in love until the mercy of Christ appears to their full salvation."

Troy's Bible Babblings, Part 2: "Why the Geneva Bible?"

With all the Previous stuff said, the first thing I want to do is answer a question you may have, my dearest Wormwood, is "With all the English bible translations out there with Modern Language and notes Why would you choose the Geneva bible?
Many years ago i bought a Large facsimile of the 1599 Geneva. I read it some but not often. I started carrying it to church because it gave me a chance to poke fun at some of the 1611 KJV folks who were a little negative on the newer translations that some of my friends used. I could now claim the 1611 AV folks used a more modern translation like the NIV and ESV when compared to my older 1599 Geneva. But it was a massive bible and impractical to carry around on a regular basis, plus the Chapter enumerations were in roman numerals and there were no headings on the top of the pages making flipping through the bible, (the psalms were a complete nightmare) and we do a lot of flipping around in our church very very difficult!

Then three things happened. First, I had grown very passionate about the puritans and reformers who turned out not to be the type people i had (like the rest of the culture) thought they were. They were very sweet, sensitive men who passionately loved the Lord, their families and their congregations. The reformers were the men who translated the text to English in the Geneva and supplied the numerous notes to the Geneva (including John Calvin himself). And many of the Puritans and Pilgrims used the Geneva bible. Second I found out that Tolle Lege Press was reprinting the 1599 Geneva Bible with modern spellings (although that never bothered me), typed text (vs. the hand scribbled notes in the facsimile) and the bible would be more compact and easier to carry around.
Finally i found the Geneva's translation of 1 Corinthians 1:27-28, which has since become my favorite verse in the Bible. It reads

"But God hath chosen the foolish things things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the mighty things, And vile things which are despised, hath God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are."

My Love of this translation hinges on the word "vile." Context is important or else you loose the meaning of the verse. The previous verses describe how God has not chosen noblemen, and wise men, (by the worlds' standards), strong men or rich men. God has not chosen men of great importance in the world's eyes, which then leads to this verse. God has chosen the weak and the foolish and (my favorite word of all) the "vile" things of the world. I Love it because it gives me great hope! Other translations translate this word as "low" or "base." And those are perfectly valid words but if you knew my life, and if you knew my history, and my heart and my sins, the only proper word to describe me is the word "Vile!" And i rejoice in this because it is the vile that Christ came to save. His Blood is applied to Troy, Vilest of sinners, His blood saves me to the uttermost. Praise God!!
So these are the long winded reasons i have come to love the Geneva bible so. I still look at other translations in addition to the Geneva, of course, especially when I'm doing a bible study or sermon prep. But the Geneva is my Main stay in carrying around and in daily reading and i hope it always will be. I won't Lie, there are verses that it does do a poor job in translating, but there are many places where it does a far superior job translating than any other translation (ex Luke 1:3, by comparison the Geneva blows all other translation out of the water in the translation and accuracy on this verse). And it doesn't use the flowery poetic language like the King James does, thus making it a far far more understandable read than the King James is to modern readers, in my opinion (see this link for a quick compare of a couple verses).
Anyway, enough rambling already. Next post i should be getting to some good stuff.
your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape.

Troy's Bible Babblings, Part 1

Well I haven't blogged in over a year. I know this has been a crippling blow to the blogging community. I mostly used the blog to chronicle trips i would take for my friends but since i have joined facebook i can now status and post pics for my travel from there this became no longer necessary for me. I have no great need to blog my day to day life, for one reason it isn't so interesting that strangers would read it, and secondly the people who i want to know about my day to day life are the people who are already engaged in it. So what use can i make of this blog if any?
I have been greatly encouraged and blessed of late reading the blog of my Dear friend Jenny who is making notes on her bible study. So yes there is an area where i can do that too. But i have another idea that excites me greatly. I have a great passion for the Geneva Bible. specifically the 1599 Geneva Bible and the recent Reprint of it done by the Tolle Lege Press with modern English spelling of words and typesetting. I am reading the Murry Cheyenne's yearly reading plan and I was encouraged to pick one of the tracts of reading and read a commentary or a study bible notes as i read along that tract. So what better choice was there for me than my own 1599 Geneva bible. This way after 2 years i will have read the Geneva translation twice and every Reformed footnote in the that bible at least once. so far i have read the notes of Acts, Romans and the 1st part of 1 Corinthians. What a blessing. Many of the notes just refer you to a other passage, some reword the text to give you a clearer understanding but many many of the notes are paragraphs explaining the Reformers' own understanding of the text. And by and large the notes are powerful and have greatly enlightened me. That said the wording is distinctly 16th century and sometimes can be a little hard to get the first time you read it (even for a guy like me who loves puritan writing and reads it often). So I decided to post some of the passages of the Geneva and a Troy-er-phrased version of the notes on my blog to hopefully help and bless others. I hope this will be a blessing to the 2 people who might come to my blog and skim it. I think this will be more profitable for others than just my own ramblings which i will do from time to time but will keep that to a minimum and mostly focus on the Reformers.
I hope Both of you are looking forward to this ans much as I AM! (probably not) Any who, here goes.
Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape